The Shining Ones
by Purloined Letter
Summary: [Original PMD-ish setting.] A Mawile and and young Riolu, both possessing unusual fur color and near-total amnesia, begin to try and investigate their past alongside a conspiracy theorist Slowpoke and a treasure-hunting Nickit. Unfortunately for the motley crew, they rapidly begin to bite off more than they can chew, and 'The Shining Ones' do exactly the opposite of blend in...


Hope people enjoy, and I'd love to know what folks think! This has been brewing in the back of my head for a while and the story finally feels fleshed out enough in my head to commit to paper. :)

* * *

The clarion jingle of her business' bell echoing up her stairs signalling a new customer was becoming an all too frequent, and welcome, background noise in Kirli's life these cycles, the sound causing her large, sensitive ears to twitch reflexively.

The Nickit grinned to herself as she heard the rough wooden door creak shut, the early time meaning that this 'mon entering her shop either didn't want to risk being seen, or was _very_ eager to peruse her wares while she was as fully stocked as possible. She _was_ a nocturnal 'mon, after all, so her pickings were at their prime when she first returned from her excursions in the early hours of the day, before she rested while the skystar slowly burned its daily path overhead. Either cause for the bright and early visit was _more_ than fine by Kirli, since either situation meant her poké stores growing fatter. Hopefully much, _much_ fatter, depending on what her customer was seeking.

She already thought she knew what this new customer would be after- there _was_ only one thing, or rather kinds of things, that Kirli's customers were coming to her for lately. Her..._specialty items_, as the Nickit liked to call them, were keeping her _quite_ busy.

Kirli exited her cozy, lived-in bedroom upstairs after adjusting her deep purple Eldegoss-woven hood over her pointed ears carefully, padding softly down haphazard, uneven wooden steps to her dimly lit shop on the main floor, the lack of illumination much easier on the Nickit's eyes. Her sight quickly adjusted to the carefully orchestrated chaos of her shop, the familiar barrage of sights and smells wrapping her up like a well-worn, favorite Wooloo-shed blanket. She then spied her customer amongst her rough-hewn wooden shelves crammed with knickknacks and odds and ends, a Rapidash carefully keeping their mane and tail's flames in check examining the shelves with a mix of apprehension and interest. _A Rapidash of the flame instead of the mind...this one has traveled far indeed. _The thought that her shop was gaining enough of a reputation to be known outside of the local area warmed the Nickit's heart almost as much as the other 'mon's physical presence inside her small shop did. "Welcome to Kirli's Paw. If you have come here, you seek something _unusual_, perhaps something you can find _nowhere else_, hmm?"

It seemed to take a moment or two for the Rapidash to process and understand her, though a smile then crossed their muzzle before they nodded, her voice and accent revealing her as both a foreigner and as another female after she spoke. "Y-yes, actually. I'm looking for...something special for my mate and I." She then politely extended a hoof in front of her and bowed her head regally down towards Kirli. "I'm Faeora, by the way. You must be the shop's owner?"

A confident smirk crossed Kirli's face. _Exactly as I thought._ "I am, and I know what you're after already if you come to me for the sake of you and your mate." Kirli winked slyly and gestured to a small table nearby with her paw, the round varnished wood haphazardly covered in all manner of books and various potions. "I indeed have what you seek, I have _just_ one left in fact because they're in such demand, but know in advance that the price _will_ be equal to the time and trouble I've taken to acquire it, yes?"

"Of course, Miss Kirli," Faeora replied quickly, indicating a large pouch around her neck with her forehoof. "My mate and I _also_ know all of the risks involved, and to not answer questions if the item is found in our possession." Even though the shop was empty, the Rapidash then lowered her head again and whispered quietly. "Friends of ours finally had good luck after buying one of your charms, and we've been trying to have an egg of our own for a while, you see..."

Kirli offered Faeora a genuine smile and nodded. "I suspected as much as soon as you mentioned having a mate. Now, please turn around and shut your eyes, though I am sure your friends that sent you explained have explained this part of things already as well."

"Yes they did," Faeora replied simply before closing her eyes and turning her back to Kirli, her ear swivelling towards the faint clattering and what sounded like a few things actually falling from tables and shelves that was issuing from the Rapidash's left before she felt the Nickit softly land on the middle of her back and balance herself. Course woven cloth slipped over Faeora's eyes and upper muzzle a few moments later, Kirli gently pressing into her back with her front right paw. Realizing that Kirli was guiding her, Faeora found herself led out of the shop, the shop's bell followed by cool early morning air on her face as she felt herself directed for a while, the sounds of various 'mon both waking and sleeping on the village's outskirts occasionally making themselves known as they traveled along with the smells of various foods wafting temptingly from cracked doors and propped-open windows.

Eventually the Rapidash noticed that as they continued the scents and sounds of civilization were being slowly replaced by the wilds of nature, the loamy smell of damp soil and feel of soft dirt giving way a bit under Faeora's hooves replacing the familiar perfumes and cobblestones of village life. She suddenly felt Kirli tense up on her back before the Nickit let out a low, aggressive growl. Faeora was just getting worried when Kirli suddenly spoke in a hushed whisper. "We're being followed, and I recognize the techniques of our pursuers. Get ready to run, there's no time for me to go back and erase our tracks like I was planning."

Faeora felt her rough blindfold being hastily removed by Kirli, revealing them to be wandering what was barely recognizable as a path deep in a forest absolutely _filled_ with luminescent mushrooms, some almost as big or bigger than the Rapidash herself, only a few random paw-prints and hoof-prints of various 'mon going back and forth in a crude trail in front of them betraying that the area ever saw any activity at all. "Running I can do," she replied quietly. "Brace yourself." The Rapidash became an elegant blaze of motion after she whirled away from the harassers that she could see and smell beginning to emerge from the darkness, Faeora's mane and tail flaring as she began quickly speeding up, then galloping with all her might, the dim, dank forest around them becoming a blur. Kirli instinctively dug her small claws into the Rapidash's back a little in a mix of startlement and a desperate attempt to stay mounted as the wind whistled a mad tune around them. The Nickit almost lost her grip again when Faeora took the hard left that Kirli indicated with a press into her side, the pair now heading directly towards what looked like a sheer cliff rising up out of the ground, the Rapidash noticing the approaching dead end and slowing down ever so slightly. "Do I turn again? What way?" she called out.

"Keep going, _trust me_," Kirli called back with emphasis over the raging air, feeling Faeora hesitate for a moment or two before she launched herself wholly into her galloping again, the cliff getting ever closer and closer before the two actually vanished into the cliff, which shimmered out of and back into existence as they made their way through it, looking just as solid and impassible as it had before. The Rapidash could feel the Nickit relax after they'd passed through what seemed to be some kind of illusory barrier. "Alright, we should be safe now, you can slow down. I have a berry I can squeeze onto your back once we get there as well."

Faeora slowed to an ambling trot, the Rapidash looking around and realizing they were now deep in the wilds without so much as even a path to follow. "Who were those other 'mon, and what did they want?"

Kirli shrugged and relaxed her grip now that they were out of danger- and slowing down. "Simply put? They're after what's inside my head, and they've been after it for a Stonjourner's age." She sighed almost sadly. "That near-ambush back there only makes me even _more_ certain that my brother is continuing to feed my rivals information about me, since I don't use my old name these days. I suppose I'll have to cut him off entirely _again_. A pity." She paused, trying to decide whether or not to continue before she explained further. "The prime twoleg places are _fiercely_ coveted by those in the know, and I have several of them all to myself because I know how to slip in and out of them safely. I hope I can trust you to not reveal _this_ one when we arrive." The Nickit grinned and placed her hood back on. "We'll be at where I was going to lead us shortly anyhow, so this actually wound up working out very well."

"Then your charms that work so well...are they twoleg relics?" Faeora was almost awestruck as she realized the enormity of what she was being told, the Rapidash's muffled hoofbeats echoing out dimly into the morning. "And I mean, twolegs really even _existed_? I was always told they were nothing more than Clefable tales from the time I was a hatchling."

"Well, I'll put it this way. They may or may not have existed, and we 'mon don't have any hard proof one way or the other, _but_ I've certainly made my fair share of poké from those that believe in them." The Nickit shrugged nonchalantly. "Plus, I _will_ admit that the supposed twoleg things I find are quite old _and_ also seem to be quite functional, as your friends can attest. That's exactly why you've come to me seeking one of my charms even at risk of being imprisoned, isn't it? Now, let's go get you your own...and discuss your payment while we do it. I'm _more_ than happy to offer a discount for your trouble so far."

* * *

**Ɛ****0-MW**

He had a quite distinct feeling that it _should_ mean _something _to him, so why didn't it?

A small, three-fingered maroon paw turned the large, clear piece of plastic he'd found attached to his wrist a few other directions after removing it from said wrist, seeing if the strange writing would make any sense _those_ ways, flipping it this way and that.

**MW-03**

**30-WM**

**Ɛ****0-WM**

_Nope_. He felt his cream-colored muzzle wrinkle in distaste before he sighed. It may as well have been carved on a Runerigus for all the sense it made to him. It _was_ written 'mon, but seemed to mean absolutely nothing.

_Let's see what I remember... _He _was_ a he, that was very certain in his mind, and he was a Mawile, a slightly small-statured one for his species from what his foggy memory could dredge up, a member by virtue of his hatching of both the fae and metal 'mon. As if a door had creaked open in his mind, recalling these basic facts about himself seemed to trigger a flood of memories and instincts, mental images of various ways to bite and attack with his large, transformed horn that constantly rested behind his head and even pouncing on foes wholesale to assault them viciously, his paws and transformed horn aglow with pink energy. They all seemed correct, seemed natural, seemed _right _as he closed his eyes and let them play in his head, and the Mawile found himself relaxing a bit for the first time since he'd woken up and broken himself out of the strange room he'd found himself imprisoned in when he'd woken up.

Now for the next two questions on the list: Where he was, and who he was. Oh, and he _should_ probably try to figure out _why_ he was here and why he'd been locked up at some point too, but the Mawile felt like the first two questions were more important. He started by wandering back to the room he'd found himself in upon waking up, hoping it would hold some kind of clue to his identity because he was quickly realizing that the more he _tried_ to remember his name, the further from it his recall seemed to be, as if a Morgrem had gotten In A Mood and hidden his name under a random rock in a sea of exactly identical rocks in his brain and pranced away with a superior smirk.

The Mawile's eyes scanned the rooms he'd woken up in after his breakout and realized that he was standing in what seemed to be some kind of row of locking rooms similar to the one he'd awoken in, all of the rooms almost identical in size and contents: A cotton resting pad, a small pillow and a bucket for water, his own cell having some of its bars twisted from him using his large jaw like a vise to pry open the bars and escape. He also realized that the place seemed old, dusty, and disused overall, his eyes going to the stone floor and finding that the tracks that he currently saw were his own exiting his cell, and a few trips in and out of his cell from a small set of three-toed feet that looked like they had talons on the end. _A feathered 'mon, most likely. Their feet tend to look like that._

"Help...please...s-someone's out there, right? I hear walking, and there was a _really_ loud noise." A very young-sounding male voice echoed down the dull stone corridor from one of the other cells further down the dusty corridor, the Mawile feeling an instinctive impulse to go protect what sounded like a hatchling that he decided to obey. He made his way towards the direction of the voice, looking back and forth and trying to locate its source. "Over here!" A golden paw and arm with a white lump poked through the bars of one of the rooms, a golden-furred Riolu wearing some kind of strange decorative necklace in addition to the usual restraining collar the species wore giving the Mawile a relieved look when he approached. "What is this place? Do you know who I am?" He held up his left paw for inspection, revealing another plastic wristband like the Mawile himself had had on him.

"Negative an' nope, kiddo, sorry. Don't know who I am myself." The Mawile studied the bars and turned his head so his weaponized horn faced the bars. "I suggest ya back up. We're gettin' outta here." After hearing the Riolu take a few steps further back into the other room, the Mawile used his jaw like a vice, just like he had earlier, the result a bend in the bars more than large enough for the Riolu to slip through. "I had one a' those tags on my wrist too, not sure what it is. Can I see yours after we get gone?"

"What in the _world_ are you two doing here?" A clearly startled female voice and hoofbeats echoed from the pair's left, a Nickit on a Rapidash's back staring at the Mawile and Riolu from down the hallway as if they'd both grown a second head. The Nickit continued in a mix of utter bafflement and worry. "How did you even get _in_ here?"


End file.
